§ Mr. Pikeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what proportion of households in the area covered by the Burnley constituency are single-parent families; and what are the comparative national and Lancashire county council figures.
§ Mr. John PattenThe results from a 10 per cent. sample of census forms for Burnley county district (which has the same boundaries as the Burnley constituency), published in the 1981 census county report for Lancashire part 2, table 48—show that in April 1981, 6.0 per cent. of households comprised a lone-parent family with at least one dependent child.
The comparable figures for Lancashire county and Great Britain as a whole are 4.8 per cent. and 4.7 per cent. respectively.
The figures use the census definition of "family": they do not therefore include unmarried mothers who are living with their own parents. Nor do they include the small number of lone parents in households which comprise two or more families.